Slave EraInsurance Registry

II n early nineteenth century Virginia, a young,apprehensive, teenage boy made his way fromWilliamsburg to the capital city of Richmond.

John, an obscure slave boy born in rural FluvannaCounty, would in time come to be known far and wideas Reverend John Jasper, pastor of the Sixth MountZion Baptist Church of Richmond, and one of the mostrecognized clergy in the country. However, on this lonelytrek north in 1825 he was destined to labor in relativeanonymity for Peter McHenry as a "hired" slave. Overthe next twenty years, he would be continually hired out;four more times to three different individuals.

This process of slave hiring was becoming increasinglycommon throughout the South in both rural communi-ties and urban municipalities. Robert S. Starobin, inhis book Industrial Slavery in the Old South, reportedthat "the Hill Brothers of Richmond, Virginia, becamespecialized slave-hiring brokers," and "a few southerners,such as Bickerton Lyle Winston of Hanover County,Virginia, bought blacks solely to realize profits fromrenting them out to others." The industrialization of theupper South, spearheaded by the building of factoriesand railroads, dramatically accelerated the demand

By TIMOTHY NATHAN PINNICK

for hired laborers, but also brought unwelcome conse-quences for owners. An increasing number of slaveswere experiencing mistreatment, debilitating injuries,and death, causing them to seriously re-evaluate therisk-reward probabilities associated with entering intoleasing contracts.

Slave life insuranceThe insurance industry, which had only recently begunto market life insurance, saw the dilemma as a goldenopportunity to expand their newest product. Beforelong, advertisements for slave insurance policies werepermeating all the major newspapers in the industrialcenters of the South. Todd Savitt, in his article for the[ournal of Soutbern History titled "Slave Life Insurance inVirginia and North Carolina," offered some interestinginsights. Savitt noted that the issuance of slave policiesgrew in volume during the 1840s, with companies onboth sides of the Mason-Dixon Line vying for marketshare. In addition to those hiring out their slaves, theconcept was well received among industrial companieswho chose to purchase their slave labor force outrightand thus had made considerable capital investments.

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Compilation of varioussubjects found in theSlavery E{a InsuranceRegistryTop five occupations of slaves inrank orderMinerLaborerHouse servantFiremanCarpenterStates represented as theresidence/working location of theslaveholder or slaveArkansasAlabamaGeorgiaKentuckyLouisianaMississippiMissouriNorth CarolinaSouth CarolinaTennesseeVirginia

Kentucky locationsAnderson CountyBourbonBullitt CountyClarkeDaviess CountyEssex .FayetteFrankfortFranklin CountyGhent .Henderson CountyJassimine .JeffetsonJefferson CountyLafayetteLexingtonLouisvilleMeade CountyMercerNelson CountyOldham 'OwensboroOwsley CountyPendletonRuss~llvilleScott CountyShelby CountyShelbyvileStamping Grounds'Union CountyWoodford

28· October-December 2007

data compiled 01105

r

CALIFORNIA DEPARBU::IW OF INSURANCESlavery Era Insurance Registry by Name of Slaveholder

New YOlk tile made ccrecaeoe on December 21. 2005 TI'Ie 00I'l"&cled data IS presented II'! bold ~lf1t

....

NOTtlSTEO

Page one of the Slavery Era Insurance Registry on the California Department of Insurance Website.

One insurer, the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company ofRaleigh, did more than 50 percent of its business in slave policies. In a singleyear (1860), it had nearly seventeen hundred policies of this type in forceand it is estimated that North Carolina Mutual had issued in the neighbor-hood of thirty-six hundred to forty-eight hundred policies on the lives ofslaves between 1849 and the close of such operations because of the CivilWar. According to the article, many slave owners began making employerspurchase insurance as a prerequisite to the execution of leasing contracts, butwere dismayed to learn that the face value of the policies would not equalthose issued to the general population. Limitations were generally being setby companies at no more than three-fourths the market value of the slave.

Creation of the registryExtant records related to slave insurance policies are few. Researchers andhistorians are restricted, for the most part, to a scattering of correspondenceand a handful of actual policies in the personal papers of antebellum south-erners located in a number of manuscript collections. However, in the midstof the slave reparations debate of the past decade, interest in this subjecttook on a political dimension.

In California, State Senator Tom Hayden's office became aware of thepractice of insuring slaves, and of the existence of related documents in therecords of several insurance companies. Citing full disclosure in the publicinterest, Senator Hayden introduced SB2199 in May 2000. The fundamen-tal nature of his bill called for the insurance carriers operating in the stateto turn over copies of any items found after an exhaustive search of theirarchives, and the public dissemination of the findings. The bill was signed

into law with an effective date of 1January 2001.

The California Department ofInsurance was given the responsibil-ity of monitoring progress, enforcingcompliance, and distributing thefindings to the legislature and thepublic. The decision was made toprovide public access by the useof repositories and the creation ofthe Slavery Era Insurance Registry(SEIR) on the Internet. The 9 May2002 edition of the "Family TreeMagazine E-mail Update" broughtnews of the online debut of thisresource to many genealogists,including myself

Registry overviewUsing a prescribed format, insurancecompanies were asked to submit thenames of slaves and slaveholders, thegeographic locale of each, and anyother identifying information. TheDepartment of Insurance collatedthis list establishing the SEIR, thelargest single resource known toexist of information pertaining toinsurance policies issued on slaves.The registry was placed on thedepartment's Web site at <http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0100-consumers/0300-public-programs/0200-slavery-era-insur/>and can be viewed alphabeticallyby either slave or slaveholder. Thesite also allows visitors to downloada copy of the registry in portabledocument format (PDF).

Researchers perusing the SEIRwill find the column for "OtherIdentifying Information" of par-ticular interest. Policy number andoccupation are the most recurrentpieces of information found. Cigarmaker, nurse, baker, agriculturalist,stevedore, gunsmith, and coachmaker are some of the occupationsone will encounter, and coal miner is

the most prevalent job listed. Although not as common in the online registry,other important details about the slave can also emerge. A date of death isprovided for Anthony, the slave of R. H. Cowan, and it is revealed that Joe,owned by George Garmany of Hamburg, Georgia, was engaged in field workon the Parrott Plantation, three miles outside of the city.

Of course, genealogists will also be attracted to the geographic locationsgiven for both slaves and those taking out the policies. Eleven southernstates are represented in the SEIR; in one of the states, Kentucky, more thanthirty separate localities are pinpointed. On numerous occasions, the slaveis reported in a different locale from the owner, indicating a possible slavehiring scenario.

Visiting a repositoryWhile Internet research has proven to be a convenient and cost effective wayto gain access to records, there is no substitute for onsite visits. The SEIRrepresents only a portion of the data required from insurers. Additionally,they were compelled to turn over any items found that were associated withslavery era transactions. This material has been disseminated by the Depart-ment of Insurance to a number of public libraries and universities across thestate. A list of them is available on the Web site. Be sure to contact the in-stitutions before arriving. The staff working at the public library of AlamedaCounty in the city of Fremont had no idea where the documents were whenI inquired in person several years ago. It took nearly an hour before they

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This is the top portion 0/ the death register from the Nautilus Insurance Company, submitted byNew York Life as a supporting document. The entire document consists ofseuenieen columns,

NGSNewsMagazine· 29

figured it out and led me to a dust-covered copier paperbox at the bottom of some steel shelving in the govern-ment documents area.

Eight companies found records considered significant;however the submissions of the majority of them wouldnot warrant an onsite visit. The exception, withoutquestion, is New York Life, which has an intriguing andhistorically relevant set of documents. Its material comesfrom Nautilus Insurance, an antebellum era companythat it absorbed decades ago. Included in the extantrecords of Nautilus are a death claim register, policyledgers, and an index of applicants.

The death register consists of seventeen columns, andis full of important details, such as the person beinginsured, person to be paid, occupation and residence ofthe deceased, date, place, and cause of death, and theoffice from which the policy originated. Unfortunately,only a single page of the register was located by NewYork Life archivists. It should be noted that the registerpage is not segregated by race and contains entries frompolicyholders in regions outside of Dixie.

Among the supporting documents made availableby New York Life were hundreds of pages of a policyledger that contained the particulars for each slave policyunearthed. The entries go beyond what is included inthe SEIR and consistently give the ages of those covered,along with policy issue dates. Combining these twopieces of information allows the researcher to determinean approximate date of birth. It is imperative thatanyone finding a potential ancestor on the SEIR exam-ine the related ledger entry.

The layout of the ledger provides researchers withan additional benefit. The pages were designed tohold two names per sheet; therefore each one yieldsanother insured individual. This companion entry isoften for a standard policyholder, adding to the valueof this resource for those not of African descent. This isillustrated on ledger page 378. The first policy is for aslave residing in Lexington, Kentucky, but the second isthe application of Mabel Mills for life insurance on herhusband, Uri. The couple's home is in New Hamburg,Dutchess County, New York. Details gleaned from thisentry include Uriah's date of birth and their relocationto Port Jarvis in the fall of 1853. There is no list or indexidentifying these "non-slave" individuals by name, buthopefully one will be created in the future.

A debt of gratitude is owed to Karen E. Smith, formermanuscript librarian with the California State Library in

30 . October-December 2007

Lockett. DAnd P •.••• , ....• : ••••••. '... , U-tg.20 t3,O,so~kc:tt, Fr.LllciaC '•••• '.. , •~• •• • 6.28-'48'" ;0" :ij15'f lLockett, Henry-a sl&ye.; .•...••••.•.•• , about 18'29'~: I .·u r.tiiY·}<Lockett. Jim-I. stave ; • • • . ••• • •. a.bout 1826- . ,.. 'I;*:V'Lockett. I_1. slA/,e .•. , ~.•.• , • - • • • . • . • 'n.bo1lt (79~ . ·'11.:uLock:ett,Johll ....... ;.................. 4-13-'+4' "159:183"Lockett, Jordl.1l-" slave about 1821 :. ~·""t;¥-;VLoc:kett. Laodol\ 1 · ·.· ·.·· 5.16.'47 . ':fsl~2'j~;tLockett, Madison-II. slAve. •••••.••••••• X;X-'ll . I)'" .,~~Lockett, Ned-a slsve •.•••••••••••.•.•... II.bout1824 ... -. r;roo' V'.. --k t· P-'-h' _, H . •. 6-"""J" 5' fo6o....... e " !""'" <a • .. •• ~. ~)". ,-' ~!.i'_';_i." rLockett. Powh&tall... u.x3- 3$ ~ • ...r,~3" -'... ". ... . ... .. I ..'8~ 1']:rf .

Lockett, Sqnir ; •. " 'Ibout'r197' ' ~. '2'l"5

From page 1083 of the Index to the Names of Applicants. MadisonLockett clearly has the slave designation, and Squir Lockett has thedate indicator indicative of slave policies along with a relatively lowpolicy number (246), which is within ten of the slaves of R. H. Tatum(policies 251-53) that reside in Chesterfield County, Virginia. Checkmarks are from the author.

I INDEX II I

NAMES OF ApPLICANTS.,

11I ,A

Page one of the Index to the Names of Applicants, the multi-page indexof the Nautilus Insurance Company, submitted by New York Life asa supporting document, A number of the slaves on the registry havesurnames.

Sacramento. At some point while working with the SEIR-related correspon-dence, she became aware of a group of New York Life documents given theterm "possibles," classifying them as people who may have been slaves. Thesewere not in the initial distribution package and after her inquiry, it wasdecided to send them to all the public access libraries. The material amountsto dozens more pages from the policy ledger, and preliminary indications arethat many of the suspect entries are indeed slave policies.

The last key record to be discussed is titled "Index to the Names ofApplicants." It comprises an alphabetical listing of the name, birth date, andapplication number for seemingly every person insured by Nautilus over anunspecified period of time. The complete applicant index numbers morethan two thousand pages, containing an estimated 240,000 entries. NewYorkLife did not submit the entire document, opting instead to copy justthe pages they believed contained slave policies. As a result, no more than 3percent of this resource is available for research and analysis purposes.

A work in processSince 2002, a number of trips have been made to several repositories toconduct an extensive study of the deposited material. In 2005 an attempt toreconcile the slaves listed in the SEIR with the applicant index of NautilusInsurance resulted in the discovery of 134 slaveswhose corresponding indexpages were not found. Conversely, a detailed inspection of the index revealedslaves that did not appear on the SEIR. This prompted a letter to the De-partment of Insurance disclosing these discrepancies. The resulting dialoguewith LeslieTick of the legal department, who has been involved with statutecompliance from the outset, has been very fruitful. Within a few monthsof notification, New York Life forwarded additional names that are nowreflected on the SEIR. It is hopeful that the associated policy ledger pages, aswell as the matching pages of the applicant index will also soon be availablefor public viewing. Regrettably, it has been indicated that, once again, thecompany will not supply a full copy of the index.

It is my estimation that between the analysis of the policy ledger pagesof possible slaves and the future additions from the Index to the Names ofApplicants, hundreds of slaves and slaveholders will be added to the SlaveryEra Insurance Registry, expanding the hopes of those suffering with theharsh realities of slave research.e

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